Feedergate

theomen
theomen Posts: 99 Match Maker
edited October 2019 in MPQ General Discussion
I made this thread as the Feedergate issue keeps coming up in multiple threads across the forum and I think it needs its own place to live. I just want to discuss the lack of feeders and the response we got, not any other anniversary related issues.
We all know the stories: wire-tapping, break-ins, scandal, intrigue. But what is the real story behind Feedergate? Was Nixon REALLY involved?
I'll start at the end: on Friday 11th October, at 6.49pm - a Discord chat which will live in infamy - it was confirmed by Demiurge_BeardQuest_Anthony that there will be no feeders for the anniversary because, "There wasn't an obvious feeder so no one was chosen."
I'm hoping we can use this thread to discuss what happened and perhaps construct a timeline of events so that we can all begin to heal. Please feel free to share your pain; this is a safe space.
Does anyone know when we first heard they were scaling back feeders?
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Comments

  • theomen
    theomen Posts: 99 Match Maker
    That's ok, I think we'd all take a newish 4* over no feeder. 
    They could have done new Torch to feed Doom for example, or Magik and Juggs to feed either Prof X, Storm or Iceman.
  • theomen
    theomen Posts: 99 Match Maker
    edited October 2019
    Thanks, I corrected the date.
    Torch and Doom aren't really related so that was a poor suggestion on my part. If Demi don't want to use the very obvious choice, Invisible Woman, because people would get too many covers, I guess I can understand that. Although, that's not the reason they gave at all.
    I stand by my Xmen suggestions though.
  • jtmagee
    jtmagee Posts: 158 Tile Toppler
    I just deleted a very long post about this game. All I will say is.... move on. 
  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 5,819 Chairperson of the Boards
    To be fair the comment may have been a bit careless in its wording.  It was tossed out in Discord at 6:49 pm as you say, on a Friday as he was probably headed home to his family.

    But there was no answer that would have been accepted well since there was no good answer to the situation.

    Obviously they did not plan to implement a feeder and none of our complaining was going to change that.

    Why?  Maybe because spending overall is down and they have some calculation about how generous to be in relation to income.

    Maybe because they legitimately didn't have the time to implement everything in a shortened period (just a 2 week anniversary).

    Maybe because they are, actually (apparently) also working on a way to at least partly address dilution and they didn't want to push out a feeder until that program was in place.

    Maybe because they have a stable (not growing in numbers) playerbase and yet need to find ways to make more money from that same number of players, and giving things away isn't helping that effort.

    I dunno, the relative pullback in generosity on the Anniversary is hardly out of place in 2019.  It's just part of the trend for the entire year.
  • HoundofShadow
    HoundofShadow Posts: 8,004 Chairperson of the Boards
    Does any have the exact words they said during the podcast regarding feeders?

    I can remember vaguely that they said they feel they released the feeders too fast and they are going to figure out what's a good rate. I also vaguely remember they will put feeders along special events. However, they did not tell us what kind of special events they are referring to, and neither will they reveal the classification of "special events".

    As for the remark about there being no obvious feeders, I think they were indirectly saying that they won't be any feeder for anniversary, and some are actually getting triggered over that remark. Reply about feeder is serious business.
  • theomen
    theomen Posts: 99 Match Maker
    bluewolf said:
    To be fair the comment may have been a bit careless in its wording.  It was tossed out in Discord at 6:49 pm as you say, on a Friday as he was probably headed home to his family.

    But there was no answer that would have been accepted well since there was no good answer to the situation.

    Obviously they did not plan to implement a feeder and none of our complaining was going to change that.

    Why?  Maybe because spending overall is down and they have some calculation about how generous to be in relation to income.

    Maybe because they legitimately didn't have the time to implement everything in a shortened period (just a 2 week anniversary).

    Maybe because they are, actually (apparently) also working on a way to at least partly address dilution and they didn't want to push out a feeder until that program was in place.

    Maybe because they have a stable (not growing in numbers) playerbase and yet need to find ways to make more money from that same number of players, and giving things away isn't helping that effort.

    I dunno, the relative pullback in generosity on the Anniversary is hardly out of place in 2019.  It's just part of the trend for the entire year.
     @bluewolf those are very good points!
    I'm still a bit annoyed though. If Demi never planned on giving us a feeder they should have just said so instead of giving players false hope and creating a ton of ill will along the way.
    Also, the only reason we know we're not getting feeders is because of a Discord conversation. I get that players would have taken it badly but I still think we should have been told on the forum.
  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 5,819 Chairperson of the Boards
    I agree that it would have been preferable to tell us up front - in a way - that we weren't getting a feeder.

    But then.....maybe that information would have impacted people's spending in a negative way.  I'm not sure any official comment was made one way or the other on the forum, so in a way player expectations - which were completely reasonable given the fact that we got a feeder last year - led to this situation as much as anything else.

    If the devs wanted to make an Anniversary that met player expectations - which is I presume at least part of what motivates them - a survey would have quickly revealed that a feeder is one of the top requests for a significant number of players.

    I think every player can agree the forum communication has been reduced over the past few weeks or so...partly due to NYCC.....other factors might be Puzzle Quest Switch.  And maybe other things.  
  • randomhero1090
    randomhero1090 Posts: 396 Mover and Shaker
    Chavez feeds JJ.

    Ima head out.
  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 5,819 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited October 2019
    Does any have the exact words they said during the podcast regarding feeders?

    I can remember vaguely that they said they feel they released the feeders too fast and they are going to figure out what's a good rate. I also vaguely remember they will put feeders along special events. However, they did not tell us what kind of special events they are referring to, and neither will they reveal the classification of "special events".

    As for the remark about there being no obvious feeders, I think they were indirectly saying that they won't be any feeder for anniversary, and some are actually getting triggered over that remark. Reply about feeder is serious business.
    In the podcast they said they had initially been releasing feeders too fast, and had slowed down, and then said (basically) "maybe we slowed down a little too much".  I can't recall where they might have spoken about special events but we have had the following feeders in the past year:

    5th Anniversary (1st one since Aug '18):  America to JJ (Edit)
    Halloween 2018 - GR to GR.  MPQ often likes to do some Halloween events (a PVP or two, a vault, etc)
    December (Into the Spiderverse release): Carnage to Ock
    January 2019 (The World's Most Fantastic Month aka the big Marvel FF comic relaunch):  Mr F to Surfer
    Endgamebration:  4CM to 5CM in April, and Mordo to Strange in May
    FarFromBration:  Miles to Kingpin

    Marvel had a very big X-men push, also in July-ish, which saw plenty of new X-characters but none of the multiple unfed X-5's getting a feeder.  Whatevs.

    So in the realm of "events big enough for a feeder" it feels a bit like the Anniversary would normally qualify.

    I mean it's beyond obvious that we aren't getting a feeder for the Anniversary since it ends in 2 days.

    Players have every right to feel frustrated.  We lost a significant amount of ground in terms of how many unfed there are in the past year.
  • HoundofShadow
    HoundofShadow Posts: 8,004 Chairperson of the Boards
    Which page of that thread did they hint that there will a feeder?
  • Ed_Dragonrider
    Ed_Dragonrider Posts: 593 Critical Contributor
    bluewolf said:

    5th Anniversary (1st one since Aug '18):  America to Chavez

    I think you mean America Chavez to Jessica Jones there, lol 
    (I often mix them up too btw I dont even know why)
  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 5,819 Chairperson of the Boards
    bluewolf said:

    5th Anniversary (1st one since Aug '18):  America to Chavez

    I think you mean America Chavez to Jessica Jones there, lol 
    (I often mix them up too btw I dont even know why)
    Oops!  Fixed....
  • theomen
    theomen Posts: 99 Match Maker
    Which page of that thread did they hint that there will a feeder?
    Don't know about the thread. @iceIX hinted at it on Discord and it's been one of the most requested things on the forum for months. Seriously, if you search 'feeder' there's over 100 pages, most of which are asking for more feeders or just some feeder info.
  • HoundofShadow
    HoundofShadow Posts: 8,004 Chairperson of the Boards
    I didn't know that happened. So, how did he roughly hint about it?
  • Therealsmkspy
    Therealsmkspy Posts: 254 Mover and Shaker
    edited October 2019
    Cable even has 4 choices that absolutely makes sense for him.

    Cyclops- father
    Domino- xforce member and kinda girlfriend
    Bishop- fellow time traveler and had an entire series of him versus cable/hope.
    Deadpool- easy, well duh, but can understand holding him back if he ever got a 5 star...of course that 5 star wouldn't get a feeder too.

    Domino, above all, would have been an easy low level feeder where rewards would have been sparse for most players.
  • HoundofShadow
    HoundofShadow Posts: 8,004 Chairperson of the Boards
    @theomen Thank you for the chatlog.

    It seems like that happened quite some time ago, probably during the first week of anniversary.

    I interpret it as there isn't a confirmation on whether there will be a feeder or not. Maybe there is. Maybe there isn't.

    It seems that he didn't have conclusive evidence to prove either case, so he's covering both possibilities. 

    So, it was confirmed that there won't be feeder on Friday.